- Hello, everyone, and welcome
to the PBS Terra Disaster Movie Showdown.
Now, you may know me as the host of "PBS Eons,"
but today I am here to help you get to know
the hosts of PBS Terra.
We're gonna do that by asking them
about their favorite disaster movie
and asking them to break down a scene
that they love to hate.
(upbeat music)
We asked you, the viewers, to vote on the films,
but we didn't tell you who chose what film.
Now, the film that won actually won by a landslide,
but before we reveal the winners,
we're gonna talk to each host,
reveal who chose what, and what their favorite scene was.
Okay, first up, we're gonna talk to Arlo,
host of "Antarctic Extremes" and "Out of Our Elements,"
and we're gonna listen to his pitch about a franchise
that somehow turned into a six-parter.
That's right, "Sharknado."
(static hisses) - So I chose
the 2013 smash blockbuster hit,
documentary "Sharknado."
(lively music) (explosion booming)
As it turns out, during my research,
it's not out of the realm of possibility.
Considering that tornadoes can actually lift cars up,
it's not that crazy for sharks to follow out from the sky.
And when people think "Sharknado,"
they probably think of that moment
in which a shark is falling from the sky,
and this guy's just running towards it with the chainsaw.
And it seems as though the shark just ate the guy,
but oh, no, he just comes slicing through the other side.
(flesh squelching) (man shouting)
So there's so many questions that happened there, right,
with the chainsaw gets stuck in there.
You know, it doesn't actually have all that oxygen
to create combustion in order to keep on going.
Can the guy live by being eaten?
Can a shark actually eat a person a whole?
(shark crunching)
I don't think people appreciate enough
that a movie doesn't need,
you don't need to take a movie seriously.
Like, it's a different type of enjoyment
to love a movie for how terrible it is.
- My mom always told me Hollywood would kill me.
(crash booming) (people screaming)
- Oh, what a terrible movie. (laughing)
- Nice commentary.
- Great, great shots chosen for that. (laughing)
(group laughing) - Amazing.
- So to all the "Sharknado" haters,
which there were some people in the comments glaringly,
how could zhuzh "Sharknado"?
I mean, you heard it here first,
documentary "Sharknado" based on some truth, okay?
Tornadoes can pick up some heavy boys.
However, we didn't really get to talking about,
as someone who lives in L.A.,
the fact that we don't have hurricanes or tornadoes.
That's more my issue than the sharks falling from the sky.
Sharks falling from the sky, yes.
Tornadoes in L.A., hmm.
Next up is Maiya, our host of "Weathered"
with a '90s classic, "Titanic."
(static hisses) - Anything dealing
with romance, really, I love.
And scandals I love as well.
And then I started thinking,
"Okay, what is my favorite romance movie?"
And it's definitely "Titanic," and that is a disaster movie.
So my scene and the scene that we all dread in this movie
is the scene when Jack dies,
We get to this point where Jack and Rose,
they find a decently sized piece of furniture,
and it's a door, and they both try to get on this door
at first, but it starts to like tip over.
And Jack just kinda gives up, like,
he just accepts his fate and lets Rose
have the whole door to herself.
You just don't give up at the end!
It's just, I don't know.
I wouldn't have given,
I wouldn't have given up that quickly,
but again, the water was so cold.
- I'm so cold.
- One of the main effects of hypothermia
is its effects on your brain.
It causes apathy and impaired judgment.
So I guess that is what Jack was dealing with at the time.
- It's just gonna take a, a couple of minutes
to get the boats organized.
- The one thing I don't understand
is how Rose didn't die from hypothermia as well.
She was fully submerged in 27-degree water,
and she was still drenched when she got on top of the door,
and it, from my research, it only takes 15 minutes
to die from hypothermia.
And in the movie, it definitely seemed
like she was on that door for a hot minute.
I dunno, it seems kinda farfetched.
- This is crazy!
- (laughs) I know! It doesn't make any sense.
- But, but it's a movie, and they like to dramatize things.
And it makes the movie so great,
that scene when she finds out that Jack is dead.
It's like, oh, it's just like gut-wrenching.
"Jack, wake up!"
- Jack, Jack!
- I cry every time I see that scene.
"Titanic" definitely has had a huge impact on my life
and what I do today.
(static hisses) - Thank you, Maiya.
You know, I think something that is scarier
about disaster movies and a lot of horror movies
is could this really happen?
And "Titanic" is not could this really happen.
"Titanic" is this happened.
I think maybe now the question to ask
is would this happened again.
- On the upside, there won't be any more ice soon,
so it won't be a problem. - Ouch! Whoa!
(group laughs)
- So we get new disaster movies instead.
And now we have Dr. Joe, host of many PBS shows
including "Overview" here on Terra,
with his choice, "The Perfect Storm."
(static hisses) - All right,
so "The Perfect Storm" is like the quintessential,
you know, like 2000s movie cast,
George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly.
Like, what more could you ask for, right?
The crew of the Andrea Gail, it's this swordfishing boat.
It's like a 70-foot, you know, just like dirty diesel boat
that goes out catching swordfish on these long lines,
and they are super down on their luck.
- I always find the fish, always!
- Problem is, in the meantime, this huge storm,
like a once-in-a-century storm,
the perfect storm has come in between them and Gloucester.
(dramatic music) (wind howling)
And in a boat this size, they only have one choice,
you've gotta ride over these waves.
- I say now you go full-throttle, got it?
- All of a sudden these moving waves had hit each other
in certain patterns and grown to these massive giants.
And that seems to be what we're facing here
in the climax of "The Perfect Storm."
We know these storms like the perfect storm
can happen every 50 to 100 years,
but now that we're energizing hurricanes even stronger,
that, you know, heating oceans are filling them
with more and more moisture,
now that we're disrupting the sort of polar cycles
and currents and these strange polar vortexes
are pushing down into places that they don't typically do,
I mean, are we creating a scenario
where perhaps these could happen more often?
Or if they just happen the same, right,
they always have, are they gonna be stronger?
And I think, you know, we're, we have to,
it makes us ask new questions to watch a movie like this
based on what we know and are realizing today.
- We only get one chance at this.
(suspenseful music)
- And then?
- We pray.
(static hisses) - Okay,
so I just recently watched this one
for the first time last weekend,
and I think the true disaster here was the toxic masculinity
that got them to go back on that ship.
And his friend was like, "Oh, you didn't catch the fish."
And he's like, "Oh, I'll catch all those fish,
even in a storm."
That was the perfect storm of toxic masculinity.
That's why they died.
(Trace snapping fingers)
What? - Yeah, they're not,
they're not measuring,
fishermen aren't always measuring their fish.
Let's just say that.
- Hmm.
- That's an- - First-
- That's an inappropriate joke.
(Joe laughing) - It is.
- Finally, we have Trace, host of "Animal IQ" here on Terra,
and he chose the quintessential 2000s disaster movie
"The Day After Tomorrow."
(static hisses) - This is the movie,
not 2012, this is (laughs),
this is "Day After Tomorrow."
From the movie's perspective,
apparently there has been a drop in solar activity,
and thus the planet is getting colder.
(plane whistling) - We've got a flameout
on the starboard side as well.
(plane crackling)
- The point is that they're gonna like have to retreat
away from cold places.
- You have to start thinking
about large scale-evacuations right now.
- Have you lost your mind, Hall?
- The scientists are right,
but the government doesn't listen to them,
and that sets up essentially the entire disaster porn
that happens afterward.
The scene that I hate in "Day After Tomorrow,"
let me set it up for you.
New York is flooded from massive tsunamis.
The main characters are some kids from Virginia,
and they're hiding in the New York Public Library.
And somehow a Russian cargo ship
has floated down Fifth Avenue
and parked itself in front of the library.
Then there's a love interest in the film.
Emmy Rossum is playing her,
and somehow she has blood poisoning from a leg cut
that she's been hiding from everyone for some reason.
So the main character, Jake Gyllenhaal,
has to go out and save her
by getting some penicillin from somewhere, where?
Of course the nearby Russian ship
that has somehow floated down Fifth Avenue.
But that's not all.
There's also wolves, and these wolves
have found their way from the Central Park Zoo,
which somehow I guess they got out of it
because, I don't know, cold?
But I didn't actually mention the other thing,
which is the supercells of super-cooled air
that are descending upon the city
at the same time that all of this is coming together,
and they're freezing everything top to bottom
very conveniently so you can see it coming.
And then they get to the library,
and even though it has giant windows
that they've been standing in front of this whole time,
the only thing that stops them from freezing to death
is a big old wooden door.
(dramatic music)
I just hate it, 'cause it don't make no sense.
(growls) It's very enjoyable trash,
but I don't hate the movie.
I just, that scene was just like,
I got so overwhelmed with the number of things
that they just kept adding and adding and adding.
There's wolves as well. Why?
And then there's a storm as well!
Like, oh God, whew, I'm sweating.
Just getting hot.
That's the scene I hate.
(Trace slurping)
(static hisses) - Big (laughs) dramatic sip.
- That was fantastic.
- I hate that scene, too.
That's why I don't like disaster movies.
It's literally like everything
that could possibly go wrong goes wrong.
That stresses me out!
- I mean, another great positive there
is the rewilding and America's cities
and wolves making their way back
into their ancestral homelands, I'm all for it.
- Okay, now that we know who chose each movie
and why they chose that movie
and what scene they hate or love or love-hate,
it's time to see what you all thought
was the best disaster movie.
The fourth most popular, which is another way of saying
the least popular was "Titanic."
- That's fine. I don't expect, (chuckles)
I don't take any offense to no one voting for my movie.
- I will I didn't think of it as a disaster movie,
but that's just me. (laughing)
- I'll die on that hill. It's a disaster movie, okay?
- "Titanic" is a metaphor. That's what it is.
It, you know, itself is just a ship,
but we're playing the violins and everything
on the deck right now as the world is sinking.
You know, I think the audience
just wasn't thinking deep enough on this.
They had to go that next layer.
This is true art. They were warning us.
- All right, all right, all right, third place, "Sharknado."
- Whoo! (laughing) (Trace clapping)
(upbeat music)
- You know, I like it.
I would've taken number one, but this is good enough.
- Can tell you a secret? I've never seen "Sharknado."
- You are missing out on a beautiful thing about this life.
- Okay, second place is "A Perfect Storm."
- Whew! - So close!
- So close, and yet so far.
And finally, in number-one place as best disaster movie
with may I add a whopping 57% of your votes
is "The Day After Tomorrow."
- Whew!
Okay, everyone, thanks for tuning in.
If you didn't get a chance to vote in the community poll,
or if you didn't hear your favorite disaster movie
mentioned in this video, leave a comment below.
We want to know.
Maybe we do this again? I don't know.
Maybe you invite me back, PBS Terra.
And of course don't forget to like and subscribe.
See you next time. - Bye!
(upbeat percussive music)